Pamalakaya vows to stop Laguna Lake dike project

THE fisher folk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Monday vowed to intensify efforts to oppose the construction of a road dike around the Laguna Lake.

The fishers’ group said the P122.8 billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project (LLEDP) is not a sign of development but a destructive project that will ruin the productive waters of Laguna de Bay.

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) plans to build a road dike around the 90-hectare Laguna de Bay, involving massive reclamation for the construction project.

LLEDP, one of President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s biggest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, has two components – construction of a 47-kilometer expressway road dike from Los Banos, Laguna to Muntinlupa, Taguig, and reclamation of 700 hectares for commercial and mixed-use development.

Pamalakaya had proposed that the budget allocated to the project should instead be spent on the improvement and restoration of the natural wealth of the 90,000 hectare lake.

“This 2016, the fisher folks will face one of their worst nightmares that will kill their sector. The monstrous LLEDP will soon begin, and millions of fisher folks and urban poor families around Laguna de Bay will be displaced from their communities and livelihoods.

“The LLEDP will also bring total death to the lake and millions of Filipinos directly and indirectly dependent on its waters will also be affected,” Salvador France, the group’s vice-chairperson, said in a statement.

The group said about 3.9 million fishermen and urban poor families in Los Banos, Laguna, Muntinlupa and Taguig will be affected once the project starts. About 40 percent of fish supply in Metro Manila comes from Laguna de Bay.

“The LLEDP is not a development but a destructive project meant to kill the productive waters of Laguna de Bay to pave the way to commercial projects that will benefit only the business tycoons like those of Sy, Ayala, Aboitiz and other influential conglomerates interested in the project,” France said.

The deadline for bidding for the project has been moved several times due to the project’s complexities and concerns expressed by interested bidders.

I grew up in the shore of Laguna Lake and now very disappointed with it’s situation having people living where our homes were. These people use the lake as their toilets, dumping ground for their waste. No more vegetable planting area that supply the local people. The project to build the highway from Los Banos to Muntinlupa may give the way to remove those people who have no respect in the environment around the lake. This will also give the chance to use the water of the lake to supply domestic water to towns around the area. I wish the project will not be like the Bataan Nuclear Plant which is there but eaten by rust because of people who refused to modernize their thinking.